Sure, automated curbside recycling is still only a pilot program in Houston. But developers here have had extensive experience recycling building sites. Which area effort to reuse existing materials, locations, or ideas deserves recognition with this award?

Send us your nominations! As usual, your spin will make the difference between a plain ol’ suggestion and a compelling choice for the award. You’ll find all the rules for the nominating process here.

You have until midnight next Monday, December 12, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today. Throw your ideas into the comments bin below (or the Swamplot inbox); we’ll try to reuse them if possible.

Best recycling of building/materials, etc. – I would like to nominate El Real Tex Mex on Westheimer. The restaurant kept not only the building and facade (much improved) but also worked the theme of the old theatre building into the restaurant. Not only that but the owner’s chose to preserve/recycle from nearby Felix’s. Nice to see a neighborhood building recycled and repurposed instead of turned into a go-go sushi bar (like we need another one of those in this neighborhood).

Sundance Cinemas at the Bayou Center downtown. True, the location hasn’t been re-purposed after the Angelika shut its doors, but it’s great to see someone try out an art house/mainstream combo so River Oaks doesn’t have to go it alone. Only time will tell if the ~$13 ticket prices will keep out everyone or just the Edwards Marq*E riff-raff. But parking is still free!

I’ve fallen in love with the City of Houston’s ReUse Warehouse! City residents can drop off used building materials (doors, lumber, tile, windows, fencing, etc.). The City then makes them free to non-profits. We got paint, wallpaper, picket fencing and garden stakes for our staging of Oklahoma!, and dropped off tile and landscape timbers left over from a recent project. And the personnel couldn’t be nicer. It’s a great way to keep the stuff out of the landfills.

I want to nominate the various local markets that promote recycling and reusing. ReMarket Houston (put on by the owners of a local recycling company, Greeni Recycling) promotes artists who incorporate reused and recycled materials into their products. You can also bring your recyclables (if you aren’t fortunate enough to live in an area where the city picks them up) or participate in a swap of gently used household items and clothes. Discovery Green Flea is a similar concept that also has antiques and vintage items. Why buy new when you can reuse?

Houston Avenue! The rundown ramshackle vacant buildings lining Houston Avenue on its way downtown are seemingly ALL undergoing remodels and renovstions at the same time. It would probably have been too easy to take a wrecking ball to these buildings- but instead the owners are recycling these eyesores into new businesses and I believe the end result will be charming. It’s wonderful to see this once great street, our city’s namesake, clean up its act. Crumbling brick buildings are now thriving businesses and private residences, or at least on their way to being such. Now that is what I call recycling!

It may be too late because I think the new program started in 2010, but the City of Houston deserves major props for getting the big bins in front of our houses. All, and I mean all, of my neighbors are recycling now. What an improvement from before when hardly anyone put their little green boxes out. And, I find that while my recycling goes out each time, we only pull our trash bin to the curb once a month. Yay Houston!